Antonio Osuna

I know a huge Sox fan from Peoria. How he got that way I don't know, but I'll always associate it with him. It's also the city in which my cousin got married.

Not casual; Yankee and Red Sox fans. Red Sox fans far outnumbered White Sox fans at the last Boston series; I expect the same will happen now.

Timo was the only one in the Oakland series to do his job.

That last section is such fluff.

What a pathetic letdown tonight. 9 game lead. Probably 8 going into the ASG. The wheels are falling off this team.

We can't afford to get swept here; it'll give the Twins the momentum going into the second half. 2/3 I am willing to accept, but not a sweep. This is our chance to avoid it.

Looks like the national league club on the north side will get him now.

Timo went 3-for-4. Sorry, haters.

The Twins are a second-half team. They will charge out of the All-Star Break, and we better hope that we sweep Oakland and have a big lead, or we'll get overwhelmed. We need to win at least 1/3 of our remaining games against the Twins (assuming our lead holds until August); we have that luxury because we've been playing other teams better than they have. But if that starts to get equalized and, come August 15, the difference in the division is just 5 games or less, it's going to be tough.

I'd come out to Shingo's old music as a tribute to him, just as Shingo comes out to it as a tribute to his favorite Japanese wrestler, who came into the ring to it.

He was once a bench player for the Sox. He then left us as a FA to play for the Royals, who gave him about $500,000 more.

Terrence Long GIDP with the bases loaded...is now 0-5 for the day. 8-3 isn't a safe lead against the Twins. They'll be down only 10 games within a few innings, given KC's terribleness.

Greedy Graffanino just got one of them RBI walks. 8-3 KC.

Come on you Royals. Need at least a 10-spot here before your lead is safe against those damn Twins.

This is also huge for the NL Wildcard. The national league ballclub on the northside was threatening until the sweep. Even now they'll be a persistent threat because of that godly pitching staff. Hopefully the bullpen and the poor managing will continue to keep them down.

Grab your lunchbox, Cubbies, the Braves are taking you to school. I don't know how they still have their teaching license after their failure to show up to class in 2003, but, hey, better late than never.

I don't think we can beat Clement, Schilling, and Colon. Which makes it all the more important that we get another top-notch starter. One of our aces will be "wasted" in Game 1, so to speak, (both Game 1 and Game 2 if vs BOS), so it's important that we throw more aces out there against their #2/#3 guys. Make it an unfair matchup in those games.

I think this is another 2000-type season where we have to win it this year; there's just too much magic that won't be back for 2006. People playing way over their heads, way over their career numbers, that sort of stuff. This team won't repeat. That's why I am so willing in trade threads to sell off the entire farm for this year. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, not just for me, not just for all of us, but for Uncle Jerry too. He's getting up there in age; come on, I'm sure he wants a ring.

I love "Every Other Day" Damaso Marte, but I'd pull the trigger on this in a heartbeat.

Jenks was throwing nothing but high fastballs for a while there. This guy is like custom-designed to be a Corey Patterson killer.

Podsednik got about 27-28% of the vote. So Jeter got something south of that.

Now Cantu is an interesting name. Given that he is a Jorge, I assume he's of Spanish/Hispanic ancestory, but Cantu just doesn't sound like a Spanish name. You rarely get a final u- in Spanish. It actually sounds Sardinian.

Farmer reports that Podsednik is an All-Star.

If you want to go ahead and argue that Clemens is a better pitcher than Wood, you will recieve no disagreements from me.

Kerry Wood's special problems are not with his pitching. Jose's are. Yes, I concede that Wood is an injury risk, and a rather big one. In the purely hypothetical situation of the Sox acquiring him (which is laughable, but let's discuss it anyway) we would basically be gambling on him already filling his injury quota for the season. Kerry Wood dominated in the 2003 playoffs up until Game 7 of the NLCS. Yes, he had a partner in crime, but he'd have several if he came to the Sox as well. I still maintain that if this team acquired a pitcher of Wood's caliber this season, it would be the greatest moment in franchise history. A dominant power pitcher would make us that good.